Quick virtual keyboard for scrollwheel models

[fredwbauer]

I have a patch (FS#10763) for units with a scroll wheel that makes the keyboard entry much faster.

The idea is to only use the scroll wheel when selecting letters. Scrolling backwards selects the row. Changing direction to scrolling forward changes the column. Changing direction again inserts the current letter and resets the position. This is much faster than clicking. The select button is mapped to backspace and left and right move the cursor in the edit line.



Edit: removed link to build per Llorean

[perfectdrug]

nice idea!

[froggyman]

Do you have the sources uploaded?
You need to since rockbox is distributed under the GPL.

[fredwbauer]

Sources:
Scroll wheel keyboard patch posted on Flyspray (FS#10763)
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/10763

Recording patch posted on Flyspray (rec-v12.diff on FS#10371)
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/10371

*Note*
Some recent SVN changes break the keyboard patch, so if you want to use it you need to revert to revision 23550. There seems to be some reorganization going on in keyboard.c and I'm probably not going to resync the patch until it settles down.

[Llorean]

Why on Earth did you post your unsupported build here rather than in the forum section clearly marked for unsupported builds?

[fredwbauer]

Llorean, I thought a keyboard modification should go under "User Interface and Voice." Adding a binary link was a afterthought. I will compensate you for any cattle lost.

[JdGordon]

I think that on wheel targets the virtusal keyboard doesnt make sense..
The display should just be the text already typed, and a long list of characters which scroll left and right as you use the wheel... the 2d grid doesnt make things any faster or easier.

[Llorean]

I'd say this grid method does actually work faster than a linear method, especially if you're using a custom keyboard where the character set may be significantly larger than the normal one. Just going through it linearly would be pretty annoying.

[fredwbauer]

Llorean:
Thanks. That's why I wrote it.

JdGordon:
(I wouldn't want it for myself but) I posted a patch on FS#10763 that does what you said except that the letters wrap down a line when you go past the end instead of scrolling. If someone wants to open a new patch and run with it it's basically done. It keys off of #ifdef HAVE_SCROLLWHEEL. It includes keymap changes for Fuze, E200, & iPod.

[gulak]

Thank you for the virtual keyboard patch. I did some modification to the virtual keyboard in the past, but mine wasn't as good as yours.

[fredwbauer]

In case anyone is still interested in this patch I updated for current (March 3, 2014) sources.
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/10763